Pluto Plutoed Again

A magnified view of Pluto as seen between Uranus and its moon Oberon.

"Plutoids or hemorrhoids, whatever they call it. This is irrelevant, " Alan Stern, NASA's former chief for the study of Pluto said of a recent decision to further degrade what used to be our ninth planet. The second revision of nomenclature suggested by the International Astronomical Union would change the orb to a member of a new sub-species of planets mockingly called "plutoids".

The Moons of Pluto rock band located in northern New Jersey have expressed outrage. The Clearwater press Moons of Pluto Publishing Company (no relatation to the band) has called upon the public to cancel their subscriptions to Information Bulletin and the Proceedings of the IAU General Assemblies in protest of this latest slur heaped upon the once proud Pluto. The Union's committee acted in this regard with full knowledge that Pluto is smaller than Aris, another small orb, making it second rate amoung this new class of planetoids. "Plutoed" was the 2006 word (and verb) of the year.